And so return we did, but first, of course, we had to see if the trout would play, and, indeed, they did. Action was fast on streamers and before we knew it, it was anchor time. We quickly located the anchor and after one “hooked but lost” swipe, Don latched on to the object of our affliction. Pictured is Don just after he hooked up with my beginning to apply the throttle to tow the anchor to shallow water, where you can see me detaching the chain links from the pyramid, just so we could handle the dang thing. But, by the grace of the Good Lord, success was ours and with anchor and chain safely in the boat, it was time for more fly fishing.
The trout were very active, whacking minnow and crayfish patterns, and for about an hour giving us some nice caddis dry fly fishing—all under bright sun. Interestingly, nearly every dry fly-hooked fish was a brown! I even managed to lose two very good fish on streamers, neither of which I was able to fight long enough to see. In all, though, despite our trials and tribulations, today was a wonderful day of fly fishing under the most improbable of weather conditions and circumstance. And, as for all that bad luck—the busted rod and the anchor debacle—I’m sure I’ll look back on the entire experience with no small measure of good humor and smiles.
Kudos to Captain Don for his expertise with his anchor catcher, which, given all the RiverQuest guides’ proclivities to lose anchors, will now find a home in the barn at the Muskegon River Lodge—there at the ready for its next encounter with a lost anchor.
Captain Tom Kuieck
